My husband enters in medical school and I take advantage of having been through the process of application for Med school to share it with you. I know it can be of interest to some people who end up on this blog and would think about entering med school in a (near) future. I will try to explain it to you as well as I can.

The process which precedes med school is different from the one in France (and in Europe, for some countries). You do not apply to med school after high school but later, after your Bachelor Degree. The Bachelor Degree takes four years here (and not three) and can be obtained in multiple fields. The field linked to your Bachelor Degree does not matter for Med School if you attend science classes to have a good level and to be able to apply to med school. This adjustment is part of the prerequisites.

When it comes to immigration, I do not know the details of it and it is very important to get some information before you undertake anything. Get information from people who have a non-standard path and came to study in the USA. You can also contact the med schools that are of interest to you and ask them about their requirements to enter in med school. You can also look up information about visas but keep in mind that a green card or being a US citizen with certainly be one of the requirements to enter in medical school (http://premedusa.blogspot.com/2013/05/medical-schools-admitting-internationals.html).

For your questions about med school, you can ask them in this forum, dedicated to futur medical students/students of medical school :https://forums.studentdoctor.net/

For your questions about life in the USA, going to school in the USA, the budget for there.. etc a website which would be very helpful and that helped me too in the past isexpat.com.

After your Bachelor Degree, you will need to take the MCAT (Medical College Admission Test) which is the first step to get a chance to enter med school. This is not the only criteria though because your grades (GPA), letters of recommendation, clinical experience.. etc count for your application as well and can make a difference. When it comes to the MCAT, you will be given a number that will give you an idea of how you ranked on the exam. The MCAT range of scores depend on the schools you applied to though as they have different requirements. Read : do your best ! To give you an idea of the cost of the MCAT, my husband paid $350 for his in 2015. He was one of the many people to take the new exam which is 7 hour long.

The second step involves applying to many med schools in the country. You will need to give your information such as the schools you went to for example and they will then be verified by the organisations which manage the admissions. Then you will have to go through a secondary application with each of the school chosen. If you are lucky, your application will lead to an interview with one or multiple schools you chose. Count in your budget that you will certainly have to travel or drive to go to the place where the interview is held if it doesn’t take place in your state. Also, do not forget that you will have to pay the application fee (my husband paid $1500 for 10 schools for example).

It is possible to retake the MCAT if everything does not go as planned. Something to know if you do : med schools can see your previous scores to the test when you will apply to the different med schools again.

I have to say that they really test your resistance, competitivity and patience during this process. It may sound terrible and discouraging to read my article but I promise you that some people enter in medical school and stay there, even knowing all that. Contrary to France, once you are accepted in the school, the percentage of students who succeed is very high. In the US, the big exam takes place at the end of the first year and the percentage of people who succeed on the first attempt is high. In France, the number of people who make it to the second year is very low.

It is a lot easier to go to medical school where you are from but unless you are already established in the USA.